piece of material
3
1.0
- noun
:
trozo de tela
- I bought a large piece of material to make a tablecloth for my dining room.
Examples
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When I was a teen, Mom showed me how to wrap a sari using a long piece of material.
Blog text (29) -
So she saved a piece of material here and a piece there, and a scrap here and some thread there until she saved up enough to make a fair-sized quilt.
Fiction book (1996) -
This is a very old piece of material.
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Where did you get this piece of material?
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I want to show you a new piece of material.
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Then he looks down at the red piece of material and touches it.
Fiction book (1992) -
You need to cut a piece of material twice the length of the chair back plus 1/2" for hems top and bottom.
Academic text (2000) -
A large piece of material was hanging loose, and it swayed as she walked.
Fiction book (1991) -
She picks up a piece of material and holds it up to the window to see if her choice of color was a good one.
Fiction book (1993) -
At first, she had wondered how all the odd pieces of material with the long white tacking stitches would ever become a coat, but gradually it began to take shape.
Fiction book (1997)
Synonyms
7
1.0
A small piece cut from a larger material used to make or fix clothes
1
3.4
A piece cut in advance to a set size for a project
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a separate portion of fabric' is directly and compositionally derived from 'piece' (a portion) + 'of' (linking preposition) + 'material' (fabric/substance). This is a literal, cross-linguistically common noun phrase structure, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
The phrase piece of material comes from sewing and making clothes. Tailors would cut a piece of material to use for a patch or part of a garment, so the phrase means 'a separate portion of fabric'.